Dom #4
“Probably all the painkillers they have you on,” my mother said with a grin that turned my stomach. “He’s gone, Dominic. It’s time to let him go.”
“You don’t know if he’s dead or not,” I said, fear gripping me harder than when I first saw their mutilated corpses sitting there, talking to me. “You don’t know that.”
“There is more than one way to lose someone,” she warned. “You should remember that better than anyone.”
The hotel was gone, replaced by...the hospital room again.
Things were still fuzzy, but not as fuzzy.
There was sunlight coming in, and I realized I wasn’t alone.
Ward was here, but not Arlo, his back to me as he stared out the window.
Mason was in the chair in the corner again, and I hated seeing him there.
He had always hated hospitals; they reminded him too much of when his dad died, but I swore that every time I crawled to being awake, he was there.
“You sent him away,” I said, the words leaving my mouth before I could think.
Mason looked up, and the video he was watching paused. “What?”
“Levi,” I said, looking down at myself. “God, yesterday?”
Ward chuckled. “Levi was here a few days ago; that was the last time he was here.”
“What?”
“They have you on the good stuff, Dom. That’s what happens when you take a van to the face,” Mason said, eyes narrowing. “You’re fucking lucky all you got was beat the fuck up and a few fractures...well, and a concussion.”
“So it was a van,” I said, wanting to reach up to rub my face and frowning at the lines in my arms. “Jesus.”
“If you think that looks bad, you should see what you look like. A giant walking bruise,” Mason said with a sigh. “Well, not walking but still—”
“I need...my phone,” I said with a frown, trying to wrap my head around things, but it was still hard. “I...fuck this is annoying.”
“Careful,” Ward said, turning to face me.
“They’re weaning you off the pain killers, but you’re still going to be out of it.
Your phone is gone. It took a hit from the van, too, but didn’t fare as well as you did.
Christ, to be built like you, I would have exploded into dust if I took a hit like that. ”
“If they’d hit his head, then we’d be dealing with an insurance claim and not all this worrying about his body,” Mason said with a snort.
“I need...Levi,” I said, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath. It was hard to make my...thoughts make sense, but Levi...Levi made sense. “You can’t...keep him...away.”
“No...no one’s keeping him away,” Mason said softly. “Well, Moira would probably try, and I’m sure Milo is still waiting for the chance to swing on him, but Levi’s staying away on his own. He’s been...busy.”
“What?”
“I...” Mason looked at Ward, who grimaced. “He said he made you a promise, and that he was going to keep it. He didn’t tell us what it meant, or what he was going to do.”
“You only need to look at the news to see what he’s been doing,” another voice muttered, and I turned to find Kayden there, on the other side of the bed. He looked like he hadn’t been sleeping much, and I didn’t understand why he looked more exhausted than the rest of my family.
“What?” I repeated, closing my eyes and fighting the wave of darkness rising inside me again. “Make them...take me off this...stuff.”
“They are,” Mason said. “But you’ve been on it long enough that they’re worried about your body being dependent, so they’re going slow.”
“Levi—”
“Is...doing his thing,” Mason said.
They were keeping something from me, I could tell.
I didn’t have the ability to say something about it, though, because every thought I tried to put into words felt like it was made of cotton candy, and the process of bringing it to my mouth was like a stream of water.
It all just disappeared, and they goddamn knew I was having a hard time, taking advantage of the fact that I couldn’t say or do a fucking thing about any of this.
“Look,” Mason said, setting his phone down and coming closer to the bed, but I could see he wanted to be anywhere but close to me right now. “Levi’s alive, okay? From what we can tell, he’s definitely alive—”
“He is,” Kayden said, and I waited until I remembered he was a cop. If he was speaking with that much confidence on whether Levi was alive—
“And he’s not hurt,” Mason finished, shooting Kayden a look that I couldn’t make sense of. “I wouldn’t worry about him.”
“Worry about a lot of other people, but not him,” Ward said. “Just...rest, Dom. You’re not going to be much good to anyone right now, least of all Levi. We can explain more when your head isn’t fuzzy from coming down from a high.
I knew he was right, but I hated it. I was awake enough to realize how useless I was, but not awake enough to do anything about it.
The best I could do was let the darkness come back and sweep over me.
I kept waking up after that, and there were times when I was still fuzzy and could barely make sense of it, and other times where I couldn’t do more than look around the room and wonder when the hell I was going to be free of everything.
The first time I woke up and felt like I was actually awake, the room was dark. The window was a nook with a cushion and some pillows, and someone was huddled there under a blanket. Beside me, curled up in a chair and partly on the bed, was Micah.
“Hey,” I said, reaching out to touch his hand when he cracked his eyes open. “Doin’ alright there, kid?”
He sat up, eyes wide. “I’m not a kid.”
“You’re always going to be a kid to me,” I said, looking him over. “You are okay...right?”
“Because of you,” he said, his lip trembling slightly. “And Levi. Those guys who hit you were going to come back, but Levi...Levi shot at them. Wouldn’t let me help you or anything. Held me back and tried to shoot those guys.”
“Good man,” I said with a chuckle. “That’s what I would have wanted him to do.”
“He was pretty pissed about it,” Micah said, putting his hand on my arm, a rare physical contact from a normally wary person. “Mom wouldn’t listen to me about him, but he did save me.”
“Moms can be...special,” I said. “You’re her kid, she’s going to be a little touchy about things like you being in danger.”
“Yeah, but...she...” He frowned. “She never listens to me.”
“I think, with this, you’re going to lose,” I told him.
“Yeah, but it’s Levi. You love him. How can you...think she’s right?”
“Because when it comes to this, she is right. You were put in danger because of me and Levi. That’s on us, and she has every right to be pissed.”
“She’s not mad at you...well, she said you were an idiot.”
“That sounds like her.”
“But when Mason said you were an idiot who was thinking with his heart, she got this look on her face and didn’t call you an idiot anymore.”
“Huh, that was nice of her.”
“It didn’t feel very nice.”
I put my hand on his chest. “Look, I appreciate you trying, kid, but don’t start worrying about Levi, okay?”
“I am worried,” he said, frowning. “He—”
“Don’t,” I said, pushing lightly against his chest. “Don’t tell me, okay? I’m still not...able to do a whole lot. And I have this feeling that when I find out the truth about whatever is going on, I’m going to try to get out of this bed. And that’s probably a bad idea right now.”
“That’s what Grandma said,” he sighed. “Well, she said we weren’t going to keep the truth from you, but we weren’t going to tell you until you wouldn’t break your legs trying to get out of bed.”
“That sounds like Matty.”
“I’m...glad you’re okay.”
“Me too, get some more sleep, kid. I think I should do the same.”
“Sure, okay.”
He lay down, but I didn’t think he was going to fall asleep anytime soon.
The thing was, even though that was the clearest I’d been since I’d been in the hospital, I was still tired enough to fall asleep.
This time, though, it felt like I was actually sleeping, with the usual level of dreams I didn’t really remember, except for a few images that bubbled to the surface now and then.
No more dead parents coming back from the grave. No more going to their funeral. No more remembering old memories that should have stayed buried. That at least meant I didn’t have to go through a whole night of nightmares that wouldn’t leave me alone.
When I woke, the room was filled with light, and it was empty save for someone standing near the window. The door was closed, which was weird, but since there were still guys outside, I was guessing that whatever sibling was with me didn’t want to have to look at Levi’s men anymore.
Except...that wasn’t a sibling.
He turned, and for a moment I felt a rush of exhilaration and nervousness because Levi was here, but...no. There were similarities, but the nose was too broad, the chin too pointy, he was a little taller than Levi, and Levi had never looked so casually mean.
“Augustine,” I said, and there was no mistaking the venom in my voice.
“They told me you should be cognizant enough to have a conversation,” he said, and I’d forgotten how goddamn smooth and calming his voice could be.
Not that it had that effect on me, just one syllable out of his mouth was enough to make me want to punch him until he couldn’t form another word. “I’m glad to see they weren’t wrong.”
“Oh goody, you’re happy, what a great day for me,” I said, wishing I could reach out and...huh, my right arm was in a cast...when did that fucking happen? “Should I be happy you came all the way down here to see me? To what do I owe this ‘great honor’? Are you finally going to off me?”
“Don’t think I didn’t consider that as a possibility a long time ago,” he said, turning to face me and look me over. “I never thought Levi would have the strength to leave you behind in his old life, but he did. Even then, you were always going to be a threat.”
“A threat?” I asked with an ugly laugh. “To what? Your plan to groom him to be the next you?”